I hiked with my backpacking gear for the second time last Friday. I loaded 30 pounds of Skittles equipment (how I wish it were Skittles) into the pack (a Kelty Red Cloud 5600, to be specific) and hiked through Henry Coe to see if I could survive steeper terrain.

I did a simple 4-mile out and back along Monument Trail and Hobbs Road, which took me just beyond Frog Lake. The hiking poles helped in both directions, but uphill was still nasty.

Before I started, a volunteer ranger asked me what I was doing and I said, "I'm practicing with this gear here before backpacking in the Sierras."

He said, "You know what? Most people say that and I tell them they've got all wrong. They should be practicing in the Sierras so they can backpack around here. If you can survive Coe, you're set."

Well, I survived four miles of Coe, but we'll see what that means in the Sierras.